I was looking up the history of the e46 M3 CSL and this was just below it. At first I thought it was some kid who threw a "kit" on it but after looking closer I realized it was factory... I actually really like the e30 ti but this is just REAAALL bad... haha

Haha its funny that some people dont know about this. Over here I've lived through the old E36 version and E46 compact. They arent common but you do see them around. Terrible looking. It looked like it was smashed from behind and those round headlights dont suit any BMW.

The original E36 BMW Compact was a success in Europe that when the E46 arrived that the car was added to the portfolio , unfortunately the success story was not as great as the E36 the car sold but was not as popular as the E36 due to the flexibility of C-Segment rivals.

The Compact - Ti was replaced in europe by the extremely successful BMW
1er Sporthatch but it's memory of a 3dr compact lives, with the 3dr variant of the BMW 1er Sporthatch.

BMW even made for internal enjoyment only an M Compact in both the E36 and E46 models.

Like Corlem's pics in from of the Palace in Bucharest - amazing building, but like the 3 ser compact is was missing something. In the case of the Palace it was air conditioning. In the case of the compact it was style. It just looked "chopped off". It sold poorly in NA and after that experiment BMW declared that they would not sell hatchbacks here. Hence the wait for the 1 ser coupe and cabrio. Too bad since the hatchback is such a fundamentally useful design. Effectively in NA we have added all wheel drive, raised the ride hight and added 2 doors to make a saleable hatchback.